1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an amphibious self-propelling toy, and particularly to an amphibious self-propelling toy which is steered both on a solid support surface and on water by variation of power outputs of motors driving individual wheels and propellers of the vehicle.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The prior art is well aware of amphibious toy vehicles.
The prior art is also aware of remotely controlled toy automobiles and the like wherein two motors are provided and each motor respectively drives a drive wheel or a caterpillar tread of the vehicle. When the two motors provide equal outputs of power, the driven wheels rotate at an even speed and the vehicle advances forward in a straight line. The vehicle is turned by causing the drive wheels to rotate at a different speed relative to one another. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,080,602, 3,590,526 and West German Patent Application laid open to the public, Ser. No. 28 16 416 describe such prior art toy vehicles.
Signal transmitting and signal receiving systems which enable a player or operator to transmit steering and speed control command signals from a location remote from the vehicle, are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,080,602; 3,372,393, and in the aforementioned West German patent application Ser. No. 28 16 416.
The signal transmitting and signal receiving systems for remote control of a toy vehicle of the prior art have employed several modulation and demodulation techniques for transmitting the information corresponding to the player's or operator's command signals. U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,602 describes e.g. a system wherein a single channel frequency modulated high frequency signal is utilized. U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,393, on theother hand, describes a system wherein a pulse duration modulation method is used. West German patent application laid open to the public Ser. No. 28 16 416 describes a system wherein two pulse signals are transmitted, and the duration of each pulse signal respectively controls the power levels which are applied to the respective electric motors.
Although the prior art has provided several remote controlled toys of the above described nature, there is still a need in the continuously changing toy market for the amphibious remote controlled steerable toy of the present invention.